Electronic ink (e-ink) e-book readers are becoming quite popular, thanks in no small part to the attention Amazon's Kindle is getting. The Astak Mentor is a new entry on this increasingly populated market, with support for standard pictures, plain TXT, Adobe PDF, RTF and HTML/CHM. The Mentor also features nice additions such as mp3 player, 802.11 b/g (needed if you have a home e-book collection), Bluetooth and a touch screen (when used with the supplied stylus to avoid accidental touches). Since it uses e-ink battery life should be quite good, assuming one can control the time that the wireless network is running.
The Mentor comes in two styles, a 5" which should sell in the neighborhood of $200, and the 9.7", which will go for around $350. For the price and convenience the 5" model looks interesting, but either one would be handy. In the past PDF handling was weak with e-book devices, but the latest generation might have solved some of these issues. Time will tell.
Aloha from the Beach
